I was interested to hear that one of my favourite writers was about to produce a non-fiction travel book and bought it as soon as it was released, in multiple formats. I did this because I wanted to read the paperback, but then couldn’t wait for it to arrive.
The reader is not told the specifics of what spurred this author, a fifty-something, to pack a bag and buy an interrailing pass around Europe but you find out, gradually, as the trip unfolds.
I won’t go into all the places travelled to but he starts in Northern Ireland and Ireland then heads for Germany with the rest of mainland Europe before him.
I read Schrodinger’s Train in a couple of days which is very unusual for me but circumstances allowed. And I sped through the read, because it was highly entertaining.
This is a personal account of one man’s travel around, across and within Europe in the blistering summer of 2022. There is plenty of information about where he went and what he saw. There is a lot of historical knowledge in there so I learned a great deal. But this is not a travelogue of how spectacular places were to visit. It is much more about experiences, feelings, smells, people, accommodation, perceptions, philosophy and his alarming attitude to foodstuffs.
Plus, with Barry’s gilded hand on the pen you can bet there’s a hint of fiction in there… or perhaps it wasn’t a dream?
And there are footnotes, of course there are. They don’t work so well in the eBook as they are all at the end so treat yourself to a paperback. You can thank me later.
Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended for armchair travellers, such as myself, or those who really do it. And if you throw yourself into reading this book you can answer this question: Is interrailing just for the young? You decide.
Sounds like a great read!!
It certainly is, Darlene, and I have it on good authority that this writer could be coming to Spain in the not to distant future. You’ll have to keep a look out for him!